Jaipur: Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) legislators in Rajasthan abstained from voting for the four Rajya Sabha seats elections to which were held on Thursday.
Five candidates are fighting for four seats in the upper house of Parliament -- Congress' Anand Sharma and Ashk Ali Tak, BJP's Ram Jethmalani and V P Singh, and Congress MP Santosh Bagrodia who is contesting as an independent.
The Congress has 102 legislators in the 200 seat house while the BJP has 79 members.
With the three CPI-M legislators deciding to abstain from voting, BJP will need 80 votes to ensure a win for both its candidates.
It is confident of getting the support of the lone Janata Dal-United legislator Fateh Singh and another independent legislator.
Fearing cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls, the state unit of the BJP had put up all its 79 legislators in a hotel to prevent horse-trading and defections.
"There was fear that the legislators may not vote for Jethmalani, whom they consider an outsider, so the party decided to huddle them up together and place them in a hotel. Hence, the chances of horse-trading or defection were negligible," a BJP leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.
These legislators were taken directly to the state assembly for voting on Thursday.
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